The Interloper
by Jieni Reiko
Summary: Yuka is one of Kagome's schoolfriends who is given an enchanted heirloom and goes ooc to rescue her from the evil hanyo's deadly attempts to swipe the coveted Shikon. (based on the first episodes of the anime). Inuyasha will be in later installments. First story.
1. Chapter 1 Heirloom

Disclaimer: The original Inuyasha story belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. I'm borrowing the environment and characters for this fanfiction scenario. I'm writing this for fun not profit.

A/N: Yuka is one of Kagome's schoolfriends in the series. As far as Kagome is concerned the events occurred as they did in the manga/anime. So this story focuses more from Yuka's perspective and will interweave with Kagome's experience.

* * *

Modern Era : Three years ago.

It was a typical day of no importance, except that it was the day when Yuka's aunt had given to her an enchanted white- opal bead attached to a necklace of collected beads.

Her aunt had said that it was special because it had been handed down through the generations of ancestors before her that had the power. The enchanted bead had been given to the first ancestor by an especially powerful mage/miko who lived four centuries ago.

She was stunned that her aunt had chosen to give it to her. At that moment, as she fingered the beads, thinking about all the ancestors and the great things they accomplished with it's power, she determined to study how to use it in hopes of being a worthy recipient. She also decided that it would be best to keep the heirloom, it's history and power a secret.

Present Time

The days went by each one spent in doing the usual routine of school attendance; athletic practices; school studies; research on her current interests.

For most of the week Yuka had been spending alot of time thinking over what to do for a class assignment in the hopes of getting a flash of eureka for the right sort of school project. And sure enough she finally got an idea and upon requesting and getting permission, she hurried over to the Higurashi shrine to grab an artifact out of Chioto Oji-san's storage of historical items. What she needed was of relatively minor importance that she was going to use in one of her classes.

Eventually she came out of the storage building and noticed that the door to the wellhouse was open, the concerned voices carried across the courtyard. She walked over to join the others standing near the doorway.

Kagome was not anywhere to be seen. Yuka was greeted by Kagome's distraught mother, with Souta frantic concerning his sister's mysterious disappearance.

"What's going on. What happened?"

According to Souta she'd been quickly grabbed by some unknown thing or power that had broken through the seal and pulled Kagome down the well.

She considered it possible that Kagome had gone inside the well. Possible in the light of so many stories that Ji-san had been telling since she knew him. And the assumed reason why he'd put a cover and so many wards on it in the first place.  
Yuka stepped closer to the well, bent over to look into the dark depths and she felt a strong pull like something wanted her to drop in too.  
She could feel her hair blowing around by some unexplainable wind current. It must of been noticeable to the others because they frantically grabbed her away from it.

Suddenly Yuka's eyes popped open with the horrible realization that it was the sacred power that the ancient opal bead heirloom had exuded that had attracted whatever it was that took Kagome away.

She felt a great weight of responsibility, for the sake of the family, to do whatever she could to retrieve her friend. So she got an idea. "Let me just jump in and we'll see what happens okay?"

The concerned family didn't like the possibility that another would be going into the unknown depths, but she felt that for the sake of bringing Kagome back, she must.  
With all of her variety of training, it was considered that Yuka was likely more prepared to handle any eventuality so they agreed.


	2. Chapter 2 Shakujo

A/N: For the following portion. In addressing Souta, Yuka uses the word "squirt". I wondered if there was a Japanese word equivalent so I looked it up. I was somewhat surprised to find out that it's "bouzu". It also does double duty when addressing a person thought to be an idiot. In the dialogue between Souta and Yuka, it's intended in the less insulting way.

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Yuka hastily went to change her clothes, put together supplies and stuffed them into her backpak.  
There was just one more thing to include.. she turned to grab her books on mysticism to place them inside the carry pac. But instead she saw a power field surrounding them. Then watched in surprise as they faded to nothing.  
Only the shakujo remained. 'What the...?'  
Yuka invoked a spell to find out what happened and was suddenly swept up into a vision.

Backflash :

It was during the school class camping trip she'd just returned from. Had she been dreaming? When she had been awakened by a woman surrounded by an aura. Her identity unknown, she told her of an important object that she needed to locate.

Escorting her to the general area the mystic expected her to find where the object was at. As Yuka walked about she noticed a lit up area. The woman next told her how to call it up from its buried spot. She did as instructed and it floated up into her hand.

In the dream Yuka returned home with it. But when she woke up and went to her closet, she found the very same shakujo. As she held it, she could see it glowing. In response her heirloom necklace also lightly glowed for a short time.

: End of backflash

Her thoughts cleared, deciding that it had not simply been a dream after all. Whatever happened to her study books she couldn't take the time to locate them now. But she grabbed the shakujo and hurried downstairs.  
Kagome's mother, Enoki hugged Yuka saying, "Give this to my daughter from me." Yuka turned to Ji-san who also momentarily gave her a hug adding, "Me too."

She responded to both, "I will. Then she turned back to Ji-san, "You keep praying but don't loose any sleep or miss any meals. Kagome and I want to return to find everyone here in fine condition."

Ji-san grumbled, "You just watch yourself young lady."

And Souta teased, "Huh, now I know why you sometimes call him Grampa bear, Yuka."

She glared at Souta a moment then softened her expression. "Have you got anything you want me to give to Kagome?"

With head averted in embarrassment he coughed and said, "Tell her to get her stupid butt back here immediately or I'll punch her arm black and blue."

Yuka raised her eyebrows, "And you..."

Souta stepped close, hands on his hips and challenged, "What, you gonna tell me what to do now?"

Yuka nodded, "You watch out for these two alright? And you're in charge of morale too. Do you think you can handle that squirt?"

Souta huffed indignantly, "Of course I can."

Securing the shakujo wrapped in clothe on her back and hoisting the backpak over her shoulder she moved close to the well. Yuka felt the pull again, her hair and clothing whipping erratically with the current.  
Climbing over the edge she maneuvered around then she paused a moment to look at each one, "We'll be back before you know it." Then she pushed off the lip of the well and gravity took over.

From the floor of the well Yuka looked up to see a clear blue sky. She'd made it somewhere at least, she thought as she paused to think about her next move to get herself out of the well.

Examining the overgrown vines she pictured Kagome using them to climb out. So she prepared herself to do the same. Making a jump she reached for the hanging vine, gripped tightly and quickly made the climb.

Reaching the top, she shifted her hands to grab the lip of the well and hoisted her body up. Once her leg was in place she shifted her weight; up and over to roll onto the grassy ground.

Fresh air. No Higurashi property. She'd read a few of Ji-san's books that described the area some hundreds of years in the past. If she wasn't dreaming, then she had actually come through a timestream. For the moment she allowed herself to take it all in.

After resting a moment she stood up, untied the rope she'd had around her waist, secured to the carry pac and pulled it up.

Using her hand to shade her eyes she took a moment to look around at the open grassy clearing with trees nearby and thick overgrowth of forest beyond. Except for the well there didn't seem to be any other familiar reference point to her own time that she'd come from. And wondered how far back into the past she had come.

And hoped that Kagome was preferably close by, and especially unharmed.

Stowing the the rope she looked around but didn't see much of anything to indicate where Kagome might be. After taking a few steps she then heard raised voices and decided to check out what was going on.

Heading through the overgrowth Yuka saw Kagome being taken away by a group of men. Breaking through the bushes she cautiously drew near the .. person.. creature.. that looked to be in a kind of suspension, with a very old looking arrow in his chest, skewered to the tree. He looked as though he was simply sleeping. She'd paid attention when Ji-san had told the tale about a yokai being sealed by a miko. Quickly scanning the area she then approached closer to touch the miko sealing-arrow.

Moments later a few men from the village who'd lingered and discovered her ordered her to come with them.


	3. Chapter 3 Destiny

The old woman miko was interrogating Kagome when she looked up to see another being escorted by the village men. Because of her manner of dress and aura Keade assumed that the new arrival was also a miko.

Noting the eye patch Yuka thought, 'That probably happened during a battle with a yokai. Being a miko can certainly be dangerous.'

Kagome looked behind her to see Yuka who quickly gestured to her to stay quiet. Kagome rolled her eyes and resumed facing away from her.

The old miko woman addressed Yuka, "Ye also were found in the forest near the tree of the sealed hanyo."

Yuka knew that the miko of history had many abilities, and one of them was being able to detect deception. So she had to balance between not telling the truth and not telling a lie.

"I've been following her so I can return her to her people."

The old woman miko quickly picked up on the situation. Both of them have the strong aura of mikos. The dutiful one was assigned to follow the rebellious one to return her to duty.  
"Stay the night, then ye can get a fresh start in the morning."

After a bite to eat spent with the girls giving glaring looks at each other the old miko had soon after been called to a situation in the village and left the two girls alone in the hut.

Kagome crossed her arms, glaring as she challenged Yuka, "So would you care to explain what are you doing here.. and don't you think that you're a bit over equipped for the occasion?"

Yuka returned the glare and replied, "I had no idea what I'd be walking into so I wasn't taking any chances. Look, I can see that you can handle yourself just fine without me, but you left so abruptly that your family was worried about you."

"Fine. So you could just slip away now.. and I'll leave here in the morning."

"I'll leave soon enough. I just wanted to inform you that you've got a destiny to fulfill here so you're not going to be returning in the morning."

Kagome was shocked, "Not return?.. destiny?.. how would you know?"

"When I touched the sealing-arrow, I knew."

"And since when have you been able to do such things as that?"

"There's alot that I haven't told you, but all that doesn't matter now. During your quest here you'll discover that you have abilities too."

The look of shock got more intense, ".. What!?.."

Yuka sensed that the old woman miko was returning to the hut and shushed Kagome.

Not long after settling down for the night there were loud sudden sounds and disruptive commotion going on outside. All in the hut went outside to see what was going on. Both Keade and Yuka were ready with bow and arrow while armed men prepared for battle as all watched a huge centipede creature as it rampaged through the village.

Kagome declared, "That's the same creature that pulled me into the well!" Moments after they'd come out of the hut it then focused on Kagome.

Keade stated, "Ye have provoked it and now it returns."

Kagome guessed, "It must be because it lost one of its arms."

For a moment the women watched as it rampaged, then Kagome realized, "This is all my fault. I can't stand by and let these people get hurt because the centipede's mad at me.. I have to do something!"

Yuka realized that Kagome's destiny had begun so she made no effort to stop her as she took off back toward the forest to draw the centipede creature away from the people. While Keade and the armed men followed after Kagome.

-0-

A/N: To be continued.


End file.
